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I experimented with this stuff a while back - and it ended up requiring me to reinstall windows.

If you only "unmap" (disable mixing functions for 'this' device) then you are probably ok, but when I disabled a device in the device manager, an elusive "hidden" device called the 'Microsoft WINMM WDM Audio Compatibility Driver' just up and disappeared. This device is what makes devices "show up" in the windows audio control panel. Bad thing is that repairing windows did NOT fix this missing device, it can't be added manually, and there is nothing on the net about how to get it back except a handful of other suckers who were asking the same question.

I really don't recommend disabling devices or turning off the Windows Audio Service.

With KS or ASIO (or the right USB driver) these things are unecessary.

All I do is select the (not used) onboard sound codec as my default windows audio device, and check the "use only default devices" button. Heck, you could even use the onboard codec for PC speakers that all non-audio apps (internet, games, video etc) will use and just use ASIO with the "good" soundcard for 2-channel listening.

The windows volume control and mixer ONLY works on devices that are selected as default devices anyhow.

Where people got into trouble is when they installed ONLY their "good" audio interface, at which point windows is FORCED to use the *only* card as the default device. This is why I think onboard codecs are SO handy - they occupy the windows audio functions while the other "good" audio interface is left to do bitperfect 2-channel.

So yes, having only 1 audio interface is indeed minimalistic, but it causes problems when using Windows 2000 or XP. Vista could be different.

I have always had my audiointerface PLUS the onboard codec at the same time for this very reason.

Cheers,
Presto

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